february2021 - 18

MARKETING YOUR FIRM

How a Domain Name Change
Impacts Search Rankings

By Becky Livingston

YOU MAY HAVE heard some buzz about the top-level domain
" .CPA " promoted by the AICPA. It's an exciting thought, but
how might it impact your firm?
WHY WOULD I CHANGE MY
ADDITIONAL SIDE EFFECTS
DOMAIN NAME?
■ If you sold the old domain name, the
There may come a time at your firm
when moving to the next level may
require a change to your online presence.
Maybe you've:
■ Merged with another firm locally or even
in another state, thereby changing the
firm's name.
■ Added another top-level partner at your
firm who deserves top billing.
■ Expanded services and want to rebrand.
There are many reasons to consider a
domain name change.
■ Wanted to increase your firm's digital
marketing potential.
■ Sold the old domain because it wasn't
performing well, or you didn't like it and
want a fresh start.

■

■

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■

WHAT HAPPENS TO MY
SEARCH RANKING?

Becky Livingston is the President
and CEO of Penheel Marketing,
a NJ-based firm specializing
in social media and digital
marketing for
CPAs. With
over 25 years of
marketing and
tech experience,
she is the author
of " SEO for CPAs The Accountant's
SEO Handbook " and the " The
Accountant's Social Media
Handbook. " In addition to being
a practitioner, she is a dog lover,
an active on the Association
for Accounting Marketing
(AAM) social media committee,
an adjunct professor, and a
speaker/trainer. Learn more
about Becky and her firm at
https://Penheel.com.

18

But what happens when you change your
firm's domain name or its extension,
concerning search rankings and search
engine optimization (SEO)? Let's find out.
According to Search Engine Watch,
" Moving domains can do a serious
number on your search engine rankings.
Not because your brand virtually
disappears for a short while, but because
top search engines, such as Google,
determine rankings through metrics
based on both domain level and page
level. When you decide to switch to a
new domain, you basically reset these
domain metrics back to zero. "
Ignite Visibility said this about
making the shift, " No matter the reason
for wanting to change a URL, it will
likely result in a drop in traffic while
Google indexes the changes, even when
performed correctly. "

FEBRUARY 2021 ■

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

■

previous link equity will nosedive and its
existing domain authority diminishes.
If a redirect from the old domain to the
new one is not in place, you will also
experience an immediate loss in traffic.
There may be a temporary page-load
delay. Pingdom says, " An ideal website
load time should be no more than 2
seconds. The probability of bounce rate
increases by 32% if the page load time
increases from 1 to 3 seconds. " Bounce
rate is tracked when someone enters
your site and leaves from the same page
without visiting another page.
You may lose previous referral traffic
and its boost in " rank factor. "
In some cases, you may experience a
duplicate content issue if the search
engine had your old domain content
indexed and is now also indexing the
new one, it will see that the content
is the same on both sites. When that
happens, consider implementing " a
canonical URL extension to remove
duplicate content issues, " says Search
Engine Watch.
I f t he r e d i r e c t i s i mple me nt e d
incorrectly, it could create an email link
failure, increasing the chances the firm's
email meets the spam filter.

TECHNICAL REMEDIES
Here are some things your website team
can do to help minimize the impact a
domain change can have on your site's
ranking.
■ Create a sitemap for the new domain.
■ Revise content/copy for the new, toplevel domain pages, such as About Us,
Contact Us, Firm Description, Services
pages, etc.

■ Register and verify the new domain
on Bing and Google's Webmaster Tools
Search Console.
■ Enable a 404 page on the old domain
that links to the new one.
■ In a development environment, test the
redirects. When successful, implement
them.
■ Fix any errors the Bing and Google
Webmaster Tools diagnostics identify.
■ Add a broken link checker plugin to your
WordPress site and fix any broken links.
■ Download the Screaming Frog SEO
Spider tool to view, analyze, and filter
the crawl data and examine backlinks
on the site.
■ Use the SEMrush website crawler to
inspect incoming links and anchor text.

FURTHER IMPACT
In addition to the technical aspects,
there are also several non-technical
areas to consider, such as:
■ Updating the URL on the website's
terms and conditions, privacy policy,
and disclaimer pages.
■ Ensuring website forms are using the
new domain email address.
■ Sending notices to other resources like
the Chamber of Commerce or " lists "
your firm may be on.
■ Revising all social media profiles using
the old URL.
■ Modifying print and online advertising.
■ Changing email signatures and email
service provider settings, such as
MailChimp or Constant Contact.
■ Correcting anything else with your
URL on it, such as brochures, business
cards, company clothing, promotional
items, conference banners, presentation
templates, and more.
Initially, the change to a new domain
might sound simple, but in reality, it's
quite a complex undertaking. When done
well, the impact on your search ranking
should be minimal. ■
https://www.Penheel.com http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
february2021

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